


Out of the Way Assignments and Astrophysics

by donutsweeper



Category: Tremors (1990)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Space, Canon Level Scientific Accuracy, Gen, IN SPACE!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:14:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27943604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/pseuds/donutsweeper
Summary: Trylos Seven was a sparsely populated, mostly ignored, and exceptionally boring part of space. When Rhonda had been assigned to monitor the observation post there she'd expected she'd spend a boring term collecting and correlating data. She was wrong.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Out of the Way Assignments and Astrophysics

**Author's Note:**

  * For [escritoireazul](https://archiveofourown.org/users/escritoireazul/gifts).



> Any familiar dialog was repurposed from the movie. 
> 
> Thanks to B for the beta!

Rhonda couldn't say she'd been thrilled when she got assigned the Trylos Seven observation post. As a senior academy student she knew she'd have to serve a term monitoring and recording interstellar phenomena somewhere but... Trylos Seven? There were few places more backwater and less interesting in the entire outer loop of the quad. 

She could have gotten to go to Coribella Prime; Coribella Prime had a hypermass. Elder Psatah'na would have been exciting, but only students with better connections than hers had a chance of studying a dying star. Numerous asteroid belts filled the Gheructivian Galaxy, she'd have been happy to go there since there was always a dissertation subject or three that could be squeezed out of asteroid belts. The Kladavia System was a boring, practically stereotypical set of gravitationally bound non-stellar objects but two of said non-stellar objects were pleasure planets which would have more than made up for it. 

Trylos Seven though? It was a post that had none of that. It wasn't anywhere near any of the more well traveled trading routes, its star was too weak to support life outside a biodome, and the composition of its various planetoids and meteoroids were ridiculously common fare and not worth the effort of mining. As a result it was a sparsely populated, mostly ignored, and exceptionally boring part of space.

She needed the credit though, so she still went.

The shuttle she was assigned was perfectly adequate at least and before long she had programmed it for her preferred day and night cycle and ambient temperature. Then it was just a matter to make sure its intake receivers were properly aligned and the data collected according to schedule. If Trylos Seven hadn't been so remote with so many substars nearby there wouldn't even be a need for someone onsite to monitor the equipment and correlate and input everything but since it was located where it was here she sat, plugging away at it. Even with some of the readings being out of their typical parameters it was still mind-numbingly boring.

Less than a week into her work a passing ship pinged her. 

_Hallo Observation Post Shuttle!_ appeared on her screen. _Up for a parley?_

The ident chit was for a B73 Spitforce Turbo, an ancient junkheap of a transport ship that had stopped being built long before she was even born, with the heat signatures of two crew onboard. It was registered with a commercial license under a business with the moniker 'V&E, Bassett & McKee, Obb Jobs' which, as far as (probable) typos went, at least gave her a good laugh. A note one of the previous students had entered into the system popped up along with the information: "Val and Earl. Stupid, but harmless. Nice enough. Useful for finding ale and other basic contraband." 

She didn't need any alcohol, but some company would be nice so she replied, _Hallo Spitforce! Sounds good, hatch 2's ready for linkup._

A few minutes later, after a quick scan of the airlock showed two human males of typical health, she released the seals and let them in and introduced herself, "Hi! I'm Rhonda. Rhonda LeBeck. I'm out here for the term."

"Yeah. Astrology." The first one through was older, grizzled and rumpled in the way most outworlders were, his spacegear patched and decades out of date.

"Astronomy," the other one drawled. He was younger and less worn looking but still had a rough and tumble air to him. It took her all her self control not to comment on the fact he was sporting a large, wide brimmed faux hide hat for some reason. Maybe because it vaguely matched his boots? 

"Yeah, well, actually astrophysics," she corrected. "And you two must be Val and Earl. I've heard all about you." 

"We deny everything," the older one joked and then pointed to himself. "I'm Earl Bassett. The ugly one over there is Val Mckee," he added, jerking his thumb in Val's direction.

"Oh, I thought it was the other way around, Val Bassett and Earl McKee."

Val elbowed Earl in the side. "I told you people'd think that when we picked our name for the paperwork, but did you listen? Noooo."

Grinning, she gestured to the benches that lined the shuttle's walls. "Welcome to my humble abode." 

Val and Earl threw themselves into a relaxed looking sprawl rather than simply sitting down, but once they were comfortable Rhonda perched on the edge of the table. They spent the next few minutes on the typical 'fill the newcomer in on the highlights of the area' type chatter and told her about the mostly retired doctor's home/clinic on the west rim, the best route to Chang's trading port and some general gossip on Trylos' various residents. 

It wasn't long though before Earl smacked himself on the forehead. "Pruxt! Pardon my Common," he added quickly, "Val, come on, we promised Nestor we'd empty and take care of the transport of his waste receptacles today."

"Aw, come on, Earl, can't we do that tomorrow?"

"Nope, we got that pipe flush to do tomorrow and hauling those combustibles after that. Besides we said we'd do it on 8.3. You never plan ahead, Val. You never take the long view. I mean here it is 8.3 and I'm already thinking of 8.5!" Brow furrowing, he turned to Rhonda. "It is 8.3, right?" At her nod, he continued, "Sorry for cutting this short. It was nice to meet you, but we have to go."

"Before you head out, you guys haven't heard of anyone doing any mining in the system, have you? Or asteroid removal or anything like that?"

Val laughed. "Around here? No, ma'am."

Rhonda bit her lip and sighed. "I've been getting some really strange readings. The academy's had these sensors out here for three standard years and there no record of anything like this."

"We'll ask around," Earl said as he ducked through the hatch, "and see if anyone's heard anything."

"Thanks! I seriously hope they're not broken," she muttered to herself as she reengaged the seals. "I don't want to have to redo this whole term." There was a bright set of flares from the hatch's window when the Spitforce's engine attempted to engage but sputtered out before finally firing properly. Then, after a dip and a shudder, the ship took off.

She grabbed herself some dinner—reconstituted protein cookies and hot caffeine stew, again, who ever said the life of an academy student wasn't glamorous—and sat back down in front of the computer. What the schwark was going on with her data? The array on the east rim was sending data that was completely at odds with what the west rim's was sending her and the one at the upper edge wasn't showing any data at all, which, considering it was online, was impossible unless an object large enough to block signals was somehow in its way. 

Rebooting the system didn't help and running diagnostics didn't show any issues on her end so she plugged in the coordinates for her shuttle to do a circuit and check in on each and every array and try to figure out why they seemed to be burning through their power supply and sending back atypical info. It would undoubtedly be tedious and annoying to do, but hopefully whatever was going wrong with the equipment would be easily fixed and then she could go back to being bored to death.

She'd nearly dozed off by the time she reached the first stop, jerking back awake when the shuttle automatically shifted to the intrasystem drive as it approached the sensor. Oddly, as the shuttle slowed, she spotted two figures in outersuits on the surface of the planetoid, examining an area of surface not far from where the academy's equipment was set up. Looters didn't make sense, there wasn't anything worth stealing. She still approached cautiously until she was close enough to pick up their weak identification pings; why were Val and Earl out here? And where was their transport?

After powering down her shuttle and slipping it into rest mode she climbed into her own outersuit, grabbed a personal mobilizer and headed out the airlock. Before long she was arriving at their location and, after a quick linkup search, dropped into their comm channel with a, "Hey guys, what's going on?"

The men startled, if their boots hadn't been locked to the planetoid's dusty surface they probably would have spun around in surprise. She was just about to ask them what they were doing and if they knew anything about why the sensor arrays were acting up when she saw what they were looking at.

"What's… that?" Some sort of dark, inky blob mass that was possibly once a living organism of some kind was in the center of a large crater on the surface a few feet from where they were standing. Had they found it there? Or had it created the crater by smashing into the planetoid and they'd witnessed it? What was it? Was it a weapon, an organism, what?

Earl explained how on their way to Nestor's they'd found Old Fred drifting in his tiny habitat, dead, with an SOS message cued up but not sent. And then how they'd gone past Doc Wallace's biodome and found all the energy storage units bled dry and there was no sign of the Doc or his wife, despite their ship still being attached. 

"Did you report it?" Rhonda said.

"We were just leaving there and heading to Chang's so he could send in a report when our instruments went weird and suddenly this thing was right there and started chasing us," Val continued, having picked up the story when Earl paused to poke at the creature. "It must have gotten confused or something when our engine flared as we dipped under this here rock because it didn't try to maneuver out of the way and ran straight into it." 

The readings from her scan came back as biological but was unable to provide any more information other than declaring it a multicellular eukaryotic organism of unknown taxonomy. Which eliminated practically nothing. Thanks.

"These almost look like tentacles of some kind." Earl pointed his fingertip light at the thin, wavy appendages coming out from the darkest splotch. "Maybe that's how it feeds? It grabs on to something and drags it into its mouth area thing?"

It could be. It was as good an explanation as any. Frankly, Rhonda was just sort of stunned by what she was looking at: an organism that, somehow, lived in deep space without the need of any breathing or temperature regulating apparatus. It was incredible. "Look, this is important, you know. This is like, well, let's say it, this is probably the biggest astrozoological discovery of the century. Century? More like millenia. Possibly ever. This might even be more—" she broke off as a thought occurred to her. Typing quickly, she brought up the graph of sensor information on her datasleeve. 

"Hey, Rhonda," Earl called out, "You ever heard of anything like this before?"

"Oh sure, Earl, everybody knows about them. We just didn't tell you." Val snorted. "Come on, nobody's ever seen one of these! We're really onto something here!"

Focusing on comparing the data points, Rhonda ignored Val and Earl as they began arguing over the best way to collect and preserve the creature until she finally realized what she was seeing and interrupted them with a not quite frantic, "Guys, wait a minute, shut up. The way I figure it there's at least three more of these things."

"What? Three more?"

"The academy's got sensor arrays all over this area and look," she projected the data just above her screen, "If we take the most recent information from the array there and use it as a point of reference then there's a data spike and energy drain on the west rim at 8.3.115, that's one, and another at the low center array at 8.3.119, that's two, and then the one over at—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Earl waved his hand through the numbers, his expression grim. "We'll take your word for it."

"I think it'd probably be a good idea if we finished this discussion somewhere else. Maybe somewhere with a little more protection?" Rhonda suggested, taking a last look at the data before setting it to alert her the next time it got an anomalous reading and ended the feed. "It looks like another one of these… things might be on its way."

"Good plan." Val smacked Earl lightly on the arm. "We don't want to be just standing out here for it to find and eat when it gets here." 

"Is your ship nearby?" said Rhonda, thinking quickly. If they grabbed onto her legs she could propel them to her shuttle, but her mobilizer wasn't designed to carry three people and it would take some time to get to it. For all intents and purposes their Spitforce was a far inferior craft to her academy supplied one, but close and easily reachable was what mattered at the moment.

"Yeah, it's hovering just on the other side of that ridge." 

Much closer than hers then. Even with grav boots it wouldn't take long to get to it. "Great, lead the way."

They reached the ship and Earl and Val quickly opened the hatch and resealed it after they got inside. The lights, which had come out of standby when they entered, dimmed suddenly while they were removing their outersuits. The life support powered down into emergency mode for a moment before revving back up. 

"Oh no, no, no, no, no," Earl muttered as he threw himself into the copilot's seat. "That's what happened right before we got that other one our tail. Gun it, Val. Get us the schwark out of here. Uh, pardon my Common."

There was a worrying grinding noise followed by the engine shrieking and then they were shooting away from the planetoid at a speed that was probably unsafe considering the various asteroids, meteoroids and other bits of space debris that existed in a system like this. It wasn't quite interstellar drive levels, but it was close.

"Do you have rear sensors?" Rhonda asked and Val quickly flipped a switch, bringing a monitor to life.

Rhonda cued up the data that the academy's arrays were collecting and started sorting through it, comparing it to what was showing on the Spitforce's flickering screen. "There's definitely something that's causing some sort of energy dampening that's following our energy signature."

"Yeah, I can see that," Val drawled. "And it's gaining on us too."

They shot past a marker beacon and then watched as the dark, impenetrable mass behind them slowed ever so slightly as it approached it. Something that showed up on the sensors like cables, probably the tentacle-like things they'd seen on the dead organism, shot out from it and the beacon sent out a short 'emergency low power' message before going offline.

"What the pruxt just happened? Marker beacons are practically indestructible. They're built to last for centuries and that thing just pruxting _ate_ one?" 

"No, I don't think so. Well, I mean, it did, but only sort of," Rhonda corrected herself. "I think it eats, or at least absorbs, power. What you said about how you found both Fred and Doctor Wallace's places- everything was either shut down or out of juice, right? I think those organisms are the reason why."

"So if it gets near enough to us it's going to drain us dry?" 

Rhonda supposed it wasn't surprising that Earl hadn't been calmed by her explanation. Especially since he was right. "Yeah, pretty much."

"Think we can out run it?" Val asked.

"I don't know." Rhonda admitted. She doubted it, though, not at the speeds the organism seemed capable of.

"We don't have much of a choice, do we? I say we try to get to Chang's, he's got the only relay that'll get a message out of the system. Then we let the Intergalactic Alliance Agency deal with them."

"The IAA? Really, Earl? I'm not like Burt, I don't think they're out to control everyone's lives, but I do think that they won't make a move until they've had about fifteen committees and commissions on every aspect of a thing and I don't feel like getting eaten while they're debating the cost analysis of trekking all the way out here."

"I'm not sure we'll be able to get to the trading post. Look." Rhonda flicked the array information from her datasleeve to the Spitforce's monitor screen and pointed to a spot. "See that dark patch there? If my readings are right that's another one of these things which means not only would we have to outrun the one coming up behind us but also somehow avoid attracting this other one's attention too."

"Well great, that's right in our path." Earl scrubbed a hand over his face. "So, what do we do?"

"We do what you did to kill that first one." 

"What we did? What do you mean? What did we do?"

"You said your engine flared right as you were passing the planetoid and the organism crashed instead of navigating around it, right?"

"Well, yeah, but…." Val trailed off with a shrug.

"I think something about that burst hurt it or affected it at least. Like all species, it evolved to live in a specific type of environment. I mean, space might be a vacuum and while it's not empty Trylos Seven doesn't have a lot in it and there's almost no direct solar activity. Then suddenly there's this flash of light and heat and that would have confused its magnetoreceptors. Think of it like the navigation going offline for a moment or two; most of the time it wouldn't be an issue but in the right—or wrong, in this case—circumstances, the results can be deadly."

Earl held up his hand. "So what you're saying is all we have to do is mess up its magnetowhatevers again and if we time it right, it's dead?" 

"Hopefully. That's the only thing I can come up with for a plan anyway."

Val looked at Earl who looked back at Val. After an eyebrow raise, a head tilt, a huff and a set of shrugs between them Earl turned to her. "We'll give it a try. It's a better idea than what we got, which is a fat lot of nothing."

"All right, let's give this a try. We've got an asteroid dead ahead. I'm going to slow a bit—"

"Not too slow, Valentine, we don't know its reach."

"Thank you, Earl," Val grumbled under his breath. 

Rhonda felt a slight shudder as they shifted speed. The craft first went slower, accompanied by a sputtering noise, slight burnt ozone smell, and the lights briefly dimmed. One quick thump from Earl and the engine shifted again and they were back up to top speed. She kept her attention on the readings. The organism was a little closer now. Something dark and unreadable by the sensors shot out of it and nearly grabbed them just as they'd experienced their slight power drain, so she'd been right about that. When they sped up the result was a brief but noticeable alteration within the electromagnetic spectrum. Unlike the previous times they'd changed their heading, the organism hadn't altered course along with them. It crashed straight into the asteroid.

They all whooped and cheered and Earl patted the Spitforce's dash. "Who knew keeping this old girl going would save our lives, huh? No fancy upgraded drive would have managed that!"

"So, what do you think, Earl, we head to Chang's and—"

"Uh, guys, you do remember that there are two more of those things out there?"

Val grimaced, biting back what was probably a curse. "Right. Do you think we'll be lucky enough to avoid them on the way?"

"I don't know and, honestly, I don't know if we should. I'm worried about the people in this system; there's already been three deaths."

"That we know of, it could be more. When we scheduled that job with Nestor he mentioned something about how no one's heard from Edgar Deems in a while which is unlike him." Earl sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"What if we find the other two and try to lure them into chasing us? We've caused two of them to crash already, we might be able to kill the others the same way. If we can find them, that is. Do you think you can, Rhonda?"

"Probably. Let me see." Queuing up the feed from all of the academy's arrays. The one she'd noticed near the route to the trading post hadn't altered its position much and, if she was interpreting the data right, the second was only about .05 AUs further along the route from there. "Here," she said, sending the coordinates to the Spitforce. "I think these are their locations."

Val and Earl studied them for a bit before Earl spoke up, "I don't know. They're close to each other, almost too close. I don't like it. I'm not sure we can guarantee fooling them both with the same trick at the same time."

"And if one of them doesn't fall for it…." 

Earl was the one to voice what Val had left unsaid. "We're dead."

"What if we get the two of them at the same time?" Rhonda hadn't been really doing more than thinking aloud, but when two expectant faces turned to look at her, she continued, "What if we get the first interested in us and then attract the second and then get them both to follow us. Not to try the trick with the engines and hope they smash into something—Earl's right, that's too risky—but they like energy, right? What if we get them following us and then do an emergency power down. Then we take my mobilizer, attach a bunch of explosives or something, and send it off on its own. With any luck they'll follow it and then—"

"Boom!" Earl exclaimed. "Hey, Val, where's that container of hydrazine we got from Burt and Heather as payment for that job we did out at their place? If we use that it shouldn't take long to cobble together something that'll work."

"Yeah, right, then all we have to do is…"

Since explosives seemed much more Val and Earl's forte than hers, she tuned out the specifics of their planning. It was going to work, she could feel it in her bones. And when it did, she'd have her academic career made. Energy eating organisms that lived in deep space had never been discovered before. No one had ever even postulated anything like it and here she was with not only theories but observations, collated data, and actual carcasses! There was going to be major research that came out of this. Not only was she going to be in on it but, if she had her way, it was going to be _her_ name on all the resulting papers. And to think, she'd thought the Trylos Seven observation post was going to be a terrible assignment!


End file.
